Immutual
by sapphireswimming
Summary: AU, based on latte-dah's tumblr headcanon. Chapter 3 written by lal-nila-syrin. Vlad hasn't shown up for work, or taking over the world duties, in a while. Danny wonders if he should be worried.
1. Chapter 1

**Based on latte-dah's post on tumblr** (sapphireswimming tumblr post/82497089481/spirits-of-kin-latte-dah-imagine-vlad-having) **about Vlad and Danny having very different ghost halves. I had some theories about why that didn't really make their way into this, but I still like how it turned out.**

**Umm, and no idea how the Dairy King made his way into this. But I am still convinced that Vlad has never (can't?) see the guy. So. HOLD ON. Why doesn't he have a character tag yet? *grumblegrumble*  
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**Immutual**

_(adj, not mutual)_

April 12, 2014

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Danny didn't bother to turn invisible as he phased through the front door. There wasn't really a point to stealth. Not when the billionaire had a state of the art security system and absolutely no problem sticking surveillance bugs all around town. The fruitloop probably knew what he had for breakfast that morning. Let alone that he was walking into his mansion.

Still, he entered the formal hallway warily; it wasn't often that he came into his arch enemy's house uninvited and he wasn't sure what to expect.

Vlad wasn't standing there smirking at him, however. Wasn't in any of the rooms that opened out into the foyer either, that he could see.

He waited there for a minute or two, expecting Vlad to pop out at him or blast him from the shadows or sic the vultures on him or… something. But he kept standing there and nothing happened.

Which made the sense of not-quite-worry that sent him there in the first place escalate quickly. His ghost energy thrummed uneasily and pushed him onward.

"Hello?" he called, walking forward. "Vla-ad!" His voice echoed off of the marble floors and the glass display cases that encased the most valuable parts of the man's Packer collection. Danny tried not to shiver as the house seemed to grow larger the longer he was the only one there.

"Fruitloop! Cheesehead! Hey, anyone there? Come on, this isn't funny. I'm actually being serious here."

Danny tentatively stepped up onto the staircase. "Are you here?" he yelled to the upstairs in general.

He missed a step and barely managed to catch himself on the balustrade when an unexpected voice popped out from out of nowhere and said, "Heya there, kiddo!"

"Whoa!" he said, whirling around with ectoblasts already forming before he could process the heavy Wisconsin twang that meant the newcomer was not an enemy.

"The Dairy King?" he breathed in astonishment. "What are you doing here?"

The mustached man pointed sideways with his scepter and Danny turned to see a portrait of Vlad's now deceased benefactor.

"You were making so much noise that you woke me up even in another state, dontcha know," the ghost chuckled warmly. "Now what has you so worked up?"

"Vlad," Danny answered. At the man's raised eyebrow, he elaborated. "I haven't seen him in a while. At first, I thought that he was taking some time away to come up with another plot to kill my dad and marry my mom and stuff so I didn't really care. But he wasn't at work today. Didn't even call his personal assistant. And no one could reach him. It was all over the news. They're trying to get a petition signed to ignore the twenty four hour wait limit to go searching for him. And I didn't…" he licked his lips. "I didn't know what to do or what was wrong, so I just… came to check in on him."

"Ahhhh," the Dairy King sighed in understanding.

"But it doesn't even look like he's here."

"No, no…" the ghost corrected. "He's in the house here."

"He is?" Danny asked skeptically. "Where? Why hasn't he done something yet? Is he okay? Is he just upgrading Skulker in the Ghost Zone and got caught up in the mechanics and is he going to pop out in a minute and make me feel stupid for coming out here?"

The King looked down at the ground as he bobbed in the air. "He's… eh… he's havin' one of _those_ days, dontcha know?"

Danny didn't understand at all what he meant even though from the inflection of the man's voice, it seemed plain that he should. So instead he asked, "So he'll be… fine? I should go, then?"

The ghost made an odd noise, then. "Ehhhh, I'm actually thinkin' that it might be better for 'im if you stayed."

Danny was at a loss for words. "I… what?"

"A King must care for his subjects, dontcha know? But this isn't something I can help with. Believe me, I've tried."

"And… and you think that I can? We're enemies," he pointed out. "He's trying to kill my dad? Any of this ring a bell?"

The ghost looked at him for a moment before responding quietly, "Well, you're here, aren't you?"

That stopped him. Yes. He was here. He chose to come and not just because he wanted to preemptively stop any scheme to take over the world that had the mayor so preoccupied that he wouldn't bother showing up to work or letting anyone know he would be missing.

"Where is he?" Danny asked.

The Dairy King floated back down the staircase and pointed to a candlestick on the marble mantelpiece taking up most of the wall. "Just pull on that there and in you go!"

Danny shoved aside all of his second thoughts about going through secret passages in Vlad's mansion, niggling doubts that the ghost of the Dairy King was just an elaborate rouse to trap him in some painful containment device. That was just silly, though. So he reached forward and pulled down on the curved metal handle.

Stone smoothly slid away to reveal an entryway to a lower level. With one final look back at the kindliest ghost he'd ever met, he stepped into the darkness and traveled through tunnels that Vlad would probably kill him for discovering. He swallowed loudly at the thought. Was Vlad waiting just around one of these corners waiting to throttle him for daring to enter this place uninvited?

His ghost sense

There was really nothing for it but to continue on, though, so that's what he did. Wending his way through the depths of the mansion, bypassing several locked doors that didn't look promising, until the hallway ended, opening up into a large, low-ceilinged room decorated largely in red.

Blinking, his eyes adjusted to the flickering firelight, taking in the details of Vlad's most private study. It was… quiet. Subdued. With plush furniture and velvety textures that seemed to dampen any loud noise he might have thought of making.

He realized that he still needed to find Vlad, however, and was about to turn around to investigate the rooms he had passed up when he heard a noise.

Something between and grunt and a groan. A long drawn out noise that spoke of trying to push through the pain through sheer force of will. One he recognized because he'd made it so often himself.

He walked to his right so that he could peek around the edge of the high backed chair, on guard in case something was wrong, but quickly lost the defensive stance as soon as he saw the figure huddled on the floor.

"Vlad?" he asked incredulously, moving forward and dropping to his knees. A hand hovered over the man's shaking form but he didn't know what to do with it. Didn't know how to react. Didn't know what was best, what he needed, what was wrong. The Dairy King hadn't prepared him for anything like _this_.

But Vlad was curled up on his side in the fetal position, limbs trembling as his fists spasmed open and closed in his hair. His eyes were squeezed shut and his jaw locked tight. Danny couldn't just let him continue laying there.

"Vlad!" he said, reaching out to shake the man, trying to snap him out of whatever this was.

It worked. Vlad flinched away from him violently, rolling onto his side and up into what was probably supposed to be a fighting position. His eyes were bloodshot and foggy, like he didn't know what he was looking at.

Danny froze with his hands up in what he hoped looked like a non threatening position, waiting for the half ghost to come to his senses.

"Vlad?" he asked warily.

Vlad blinked. And then his eyes began to roll to the back of his head and he stumbled, barely catching himself from face planting into his maroon carpet.

Danny ran over and grabbed his arm to help him up, but by that time, Vlad was already standing up on his own power and pulled his arm out of Danny's grasp. "Let go of me," he snarled.

Danny backed up, not wanting to make anything worse than it already was. "Are… are you okay?" he asked as Vlad clutched at the furniture to make his way to a cabinet in the corner.

He pulled out a glass and bottle of something amber colored. It took him three tries to take the cap off. "M'fine," he said as he sloshed a drink into the glass.

Danny raised an eyebrow. "You don't look fine," he said as Vlad practically stumbled back to a chair where he collapsed. "You aren't… you're not drunk are you?"

Vlad's head lolled back until he could pin the boy with a glare.

"Uh, okay," Danny mumbled. "Guess you're not drunk, then."

Vlad gulped down his glass then curled forward far enough to put pressure on his temples.

"Seriously, though, dude, you're kind of freaking me out. I mean, what's wrong?"

Vlad groaned. "Shut up."

"If you want me to go, fine, I'll go," Danny huffed. "Not like I wanted to walk in on this anyway," he grumbled. He didn't move, though, because he had honestly never seen Vlad in such a state.

"But you are not okay," he pressed. "Do you need me to call a doctor or something?"

Raising his head, Vlad snapped, "Of course I don't."

Danny wasn't so sure but he didn't say anything. He knew from dealing with Tucker that if a guy did not want to see a doctor, there was no way you were going to get him to see a doctor. Unless he disguised it as a school sponsored trip to a modeling agency, but he doubted that would work here.

In the silence, Vlad blinked and sharply turned toward Danny, although he seemed to regret the movement and pressed the heel of his hand to his eyes. "How'd you get in here anyway?"

Danny threw a thumb over his shoulder, "Uhh, the Dairy King…?"

For a moment, Vlad didn't respond. And then he huffed a little, "Right, of course. The Dairy King. Sure, Daniel, if you say so."

"I… uh…" Danny didn't really know how to respond so he just said, "yeah…?"

The silence started to become awkward as Vlad stayed hunched in his chair and Danny was still unwilling to leave, shuffling his feet into the carpet wondering what to do next.

"When did you get here?" Vlad asked softly.

The question caught Danny off guard. "Uh, I don't know. Whenever your ghost sense went off, I guess."

Vlad sighed. "Contrary to popular opinion, I do not, in fact, steal every single one of your parents' badly named inventions."

Danny's eyes went wide. "Okay, that's it, cheesehead," he said, striding forward. "I think something has officially melted your brain."

As soon as he put an arm on the billionaire's shoulder, however, Vlad shook him off violently, practically hissing, "Don't touch me!"

Danny took his hands away but didn't back up any. He wasn't going to leave and let Vlad just stay like this.

Vlad saw his stance out of the corner of his eye and groaned. "I just want to be left alone."

"Well, too bad, fruitloop, because something is definitely wrong here."

"Nothing's wrong," Vlad groused, but nobody in the room was buying it.

"Uh huh," Danny mock-agreed.

"I'm just… having one of those days," Vlad said tiredly. "I'll be fine. If you just let me be," he said pointedly.

Danny almost laughed. "Yeah… I have bad days too and let me tell you they do not look like this. Maybe we can tell the press you were just partying hard over the Packer's latest victory. They were playing, right? It's still football season?"

"Stop playing around."

"Sorry," Danny said. "But still," he began.

Vlad sat up straight and looked Danny in the eye. "Look, I am fine." When it looked like Danny was about to disagree he amended, "I will be fine. And while I suppose I ought to commend your overbearing and unwelcome concern you can leave because I'm not going to die, I'm just having one of _those _days. Alright? You should know what that feels like and appreciate the fact that I am asking you to _go_."

Danny stared at him. "Okay, that's like the third time I've heard that today and no, I don't know what it means. I don't know what one of those days is unless you're sitting around here moping that you didn't catch the ghost in time and so now Star's leg is broken and another city block is destroyed because of you. But somehow, I don't think that's it. So what's going on? I'm not leaving until you tell me."

Vlad squinted up at the teenager. "Are you…?"

"Am I what?" Danny asked with his hands up in the air. "You're not really making this easy on me today, are you?"

"Don't play dumb, Daniel. You know exactly what I'm talking about!"

"No, I don't!"

"Yes, you do! When you try to push it off to the side and ignore it for too long and then it builds up and up until you can't tune it out and it says things inside your brain until you're seeing stars and don't want to say no to it and that's why I wanted to start teaching you as soon as I found out that you're a half ghost too because you need to know how to deal with it… and frankly, I do it best alone!"

He was breathing hard as he looked pointedly at Danny, clearly wanting nothing more than for him to leave him in peace, but Danny stood frozen in place, not daring to move.

"Vlad," he breathed. "What are you talking about?"


	2. Dont Get Too Excited This is Just An Exp

**EDIT: lal-nila-syrin has written another chapter to this on the tumblr post below! If you don't feel like taking out the spaces and adding the dots and slashes in yourself, there's a link on my profile page.**

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**Okay, before you ask, no, I'm not continuing this. **Because from my end, I like what I did and where it ended. But I realize that most people think it's a horrible place to stop. Just for the record, I tried to continue it for many hours and still had nothing so I declared this fic officially done but, of course, anyone else is free to take a crack at the idea too. Not like it was even mine to begin with, haha.

So for people who were confused about where this was coming from, the original post is on tumblr and you should be able to see it even without an account: (sapphireswimming tumblr post/82497089481/spirits-of-kin-latte-dah-imagine-vlad-having) But I shall explain. Hopefully this helps to enlighten you...

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Latte-dah said "Imagine clad having an internal struggle and he's on his hands and knees on the floor, holding his head in pain, and Danny is there to witness it and both of them have no idea about how different their ghost halves are."

Her mini scene went thusly:

"Vlad… are… are you okay?"

"O-oh, it's nothing… you know how it is, Daniel…"

"How… what is?"

"Don't play dumb, Daniel. You know… *shudders* when the voice won't leave you alone."

"Wait, what? … the voice?"

"*lifts head, eyes wide in shock* … y-you mean… you don't… you don't have one?"

And so I replied with this fic and some implied theory of my own.

So Danny and Vlad's ghost halves also come with a "voice" that speaks to them, but since Vlad's accident was so different from Danny's, their ghost halves have developed with very different traits and they both assume that the other is just like them when they aren't. Vlad was blasted in the face. So his energy is concentrated in his mind. His voice is stuck there, always, and whispers horrible things to him. Wants him to do evil things. More evil than he is willing to do unless he slips and does something just to appease "Plasmius," but most of the time he is able to control it, fight it, and push it to the back of his head. Until he lets it go for too long and can't hold it back anymore. Then the voice gives him the migraine of his life and pretty much debilitates him and he curls up and tries to make the pain go away and can't be by anyone because he's scared of what he'll do because it's really hard to ignore what the voice wants him to do. So occasionally, he holes himself up in his secret lab and doesn't go to work. Which is all well and good when he's not mayor and didn't come up with an excuse like he was going to visit a foreign dignitary or something because it caught him off guard.

So then Danny is worried about why he's been gone so long. Is he planning to take over the world and kill his parents? it must be a doozy of a plan to keep him this dedicated for so long. Is he lost in the ghost zone? Was he hurt by some ghost so nasty that it can get the drop on Vlad? If so, Danny would need to know about it. So off he goes to Vlad's mansion. And the ever helpful Dairy King directs him to the right place since he can't do anything to help. (Vlad didn't know of the Dairy King's existence in Bitter Reunions. I can't see how that's possible unless for some reason he literally cannot see the guy. Don't know why Danny could, then. But hey, it's an interesting theory and I like how it played into the story. DK wants to help but can't so he's really glad when someone comes who can.)

And Danny has no clue what on earth is going on when he finds Vlad. Because he doesn't think he has a voice. He does, but it's just kind of a nice energy thrumming throughout his entire body. And it doesn't say anything weird to him because "Phantom" wants to protect the town just as much as Danny does so it's not saying anything odd or different that he would stop and go "wait what that thought didn't come from me." So he doesn't have any clue what Vlad's talking about with this whole voice thing or why he's in pain and hiding from the world and thinks he's like injured or really hungover but then Vlad is brushing it off because of course, he thinks that Danny goes through the same thing he does but if the kid isn't understanding how bad it really is for Vlad, he doesn't want to appear weak or pitiful. So he tries to make it not a big deal. And hints that it's one of _those_ days. (like how girls hint that it's just one of those weeks and everyone understands without having to say anything more)

But then they both realize that they have very different ghost halves and neither of them have any clue what on earth is going on. And I couldn't go much further forward because Vlad would be the one with enough info to come up with a theory but he can't do that while he's still battling with his voice. But Danny wasn't just going to leave. Btu Vlad wouldn't want him to stay. So I have no clue what would happen next and where it would go and how that conversation would progress.

And I couldn't add in much more information than I did without it become an awkward info dump of words that didn't belong in the story, but this was what I was thinking. Based on that headcanon. And this AU just gives me really strong feelings okay? I realize this is super long winded even though it's not at all what you wanted and isn't more of the fic but it's adding more to the idea and maybe someone else can figure out where it would go next.

Because. alskdfhsd.


	3. Chapter 2 by lalnilasyrin

**With ****lal-nila-syrin's permission, I am posting her addition to the story here. There's a link to the tumblr post it came from on my profile if you want to see it in its natural habitat.**

**But just to clarify: this chapter is written by lal-nila-syrin, not me. And I don't think either of us plans on continuing it so for now it is complete unless someone else would like to continue from here, which they are more than welcome to do. I'd link it or even post it here as a next chapter if you didn't want to post it separately.**

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"Vlad… what are you talking about?" Danny breathed, not daring much more than the slight movement of his lips, "What is _it_?"

Vlad's eyes were narrow as he let his gaze fall to the floor. The boy really didn't know what was going on, did he?

"It… the _voice_. Those days when it won't leave you alone." Vlad whispered hoarsely, slowly putting aside his glass—his hands were trembling and he couldn't keep a firm grip of it anyway. He pushed himself up slowly, using the armrests of his previous seat to steady himself.

"Wait, what?" Danny's eyebrows knit together in utter confusion. "…What voice, Vlad?"

Vlad lifted his head, his eyes widened to the size of saucers, a gasp stuck halfway out of his throat. "The voice—the one in your head. The one you can't ignore _because_ it's in your head." He staggered forward, his large hands gripping the white-haired teenager's shoulders frantically. The boy flinched. "Y—you mean to tell me that… you don't have one?"

His voice was incredulous… and desperate. Not wanting to believe he was _alone_ in this. Not wanting to believe he was the only one who heard a voice. Not when Danny was the only other half-ghost in existence.

Danny slowly shook his head, not phasing out of Vlad's too-tight grip in fear that the man would fall without Danny there to balance him.

Even Vlad's eyes trembled. And Danny was starting to get scared too—he had never seen Vlad like this, and it was frightening. And Vlad had mentioned… this voice, whatever it was, was not something he could refuse or deny.

"You… really don't have one."

Sadness penetrated the air between them, and his grip loosened as he stepped back, collapsing once more into his chair. Though Danny knew Vlad was trying to hide it, there was a sense of loss and hopelessness emanating from that one sentence—it was the feeling of defeat and complete loneliness. Vlad had realized that despite that they were half-ghosts, they were _different_.

Danny stared up at him, lively electric green eyes meeting dead steel blue, unsure what to say or do to comfort him. After a minute, Danny finally spoke, "What does it say?"

"…"

Vlad didn't need Danny to specify to know what he was asking. But he was hesitant—to repeat those thoughts… would they be his own, or would it be _the voice_ finally taking over? He could never be sure anymore, the line between them was so blurred.

After a long, internal struggle, he answered, "Plasmius," he took a deep breath before continuing in a strained voice, "I was okay with the stealing. And I believed it when it said I should kill Jack. But Madeline… and you… and everything else… sometimes that 'if I can't have it no one can' mentality doesn't seem like me."

"Isn't Plasmius… you?" Danny tilted his head, shifting forms and reverting back to human—his feet touched the ground lightly, and he stepped up to Vlad, pulling the chair's ottoman toward him and sitting down on it.

Vlad shuddered and dropped his gaze, "Maybe. I don't know anymore. At first I thought it was, but after twenty years… its voice has gotten stronger, and it's definitely not me anymore."

Danny had a hard time imagining any other Vlad—even if there was a difference between Vlad and Plasmius, they didn't seem all that different.

"In the beginning, all I wanted was a family. What it wants is the world… ultimate power… some sort of revenge or payback… and at some point it convinced me it was what I wanted too, but… now I can't tell if it's still its wish or if some of it's mine. And it uses that against me. It tries to urge me to—to destroy… everything. To hate everything, for all the wrong the world has done to me—to it—to us—I'm not even sure anymore. To trample the people who made us powerless."

Danny stared, and Vlad looked up tiredly, his voice shaking but trying to remain stoic and failing. "Sometimes I hear it telling me that it would be better if I wasn't _just_ a half ghost. That I would be more powerful if I was…"

The implication made Danny's eyes widen.

"You… really don't understand, do you." Vlad shook his head, gripping his armrests tight, "Or maybe you just haven't heard it yet. It probably never does seem like it's not you at first… it seems like a drumbeat, nothing more than an extra, painful beat in your heart. But twenty years from now… you'l hear it trying to kill you too."

Danny placed a hand over his chest, clutching tightly. He listened—and Vlad was right. There was a soft thrumming, but it wasn't painful like Vlad said… it was a nice energy, pulsing throughout his entire body. He never really noticed it before, but when he did he had always thought it was just the ectoplasm running through his blood.

But… could it be? Could it really be the start of some sort of painful downward spiral…?

"I suppose it doesn't matter. Any other day, and we'll be back to normal. Its motivations… and mine… aren't entirely different anymore." Vlad shook his head forlornly, rubbing his temples with both hands as he hunched over again, "And at the end of the day, I'm just another ghost you have to stop."

Silently, they both wondered if Vlad was asking Danny to stop him—to stop Plasmius.

Vlad clutched his head. "Are you through interrogating me now, boy? You wanted to know what _it_ was… and now you know." He sighed heavily, "Leave… so I can deal with this monster on my own."

Danny opened his mouth to protest, to offer to stay, to help him somehow—but he really didn't understand. He could see the amount of effort it was taking Vlad to speak levelly, and he couldn't imagine what beast he was holding back with such a tight grip on his head.

How could he help when he didn't understand?

When he found he didn't have any words to offer, in comfort or reassurance or anything, he shut his mouth and just sat there, watching Vlad with wide, befuddled eyes.

_That's weird. I always thought all the evil stuff was Vlad controlling _it_. I never realized it was the other way around._

_Could _Vlad_ actually be _good_? Was it _Plasmius_ all along?_

Danny froze.

Now that he was actually paying attention to the gentle pulse in his body, he realized that that first thought… had come just a little too fast.

Almost like it wasn't his own.


End file.
